5 Great Onboarding Missions to Give to New Hires

One of the busiest periods of the HR calendar is now almost upon us: the first-quarter hiring rush that immediately follows the holiday-season slowdown. When hiring budgets and career ambitions are unleashed in January, we can expect to see a massive wave of applications, interviews, and job offers.

This is going to put much greater pressure on employers’ onboarding processes as the waves of new hires hit the shores of HR departments. As you probably know, the first few weeks of employment are a high-risk period for staff retention. This study from Belmont University quotes the Wynhurst Group  as saying, “New employees decide whether they feel at home or not in the first three weeks in a company, and 4 percent of new employees leave a job after a disastrous first day.”

If employers don’t want to see all their good first-quarter hiring activity go to waste, they’ll also need to bolster their onboarding processes, which will be under greater pressure in the first quarter. This is why I thought it would be a good time to outline some great onboarding activities and missions that new hires can take on to speed up their integration into the business.

Mission 1: Develop an Internal Network Map/Chart

A study  from professors at the Working Knowledge Research Consortium at Babson College shows that new hires who build information networks with coworkers the quickest perform better and are happier. So, a great mission for new hires is to construct their information networks, which will contain the key go-to people who can do things for them, key customers, and key influencers.

Mission 2: Meet, Greet, and Charm Your Network

As a follow-up mission to the first task, the new hire should schedule meetings/meet-ups/chats with each member of their network in order to introduce themselves, share contact details, and schedule furthering check-ins.

Mission 3: Attend Three Informal Social Events in the First Three Months (Even if You Have to Arrange Them) 

This doesn’t have to mean going for drinks — it could mean joining the office football team or running circle. Basically, it means doing anything that helps the new hire bond with teammates in non-work situations. This adds an extra dimension to the new hire’s working relationships, strengthening them in the process.

Mission 4: Learn the Names of Every Key Member in Your Network within One Week

Being able to put names to faces quickly will make the new hire feel much more confident and much more at home. They’ll also learn to be more effective sooner, as they’ll need to be able to quickly call on their network to get things done. Knowing names will impress peers and coworkers and help new hires build rapports with fellow staff members more quickly.

Mission 5: Find a Problem and Fix It 

Studies show that workers who make quick wins turn out to be better performers overall, thanks to the initial confidence boosts that came from early successes. As new hires with fresh eyes, they are in prime positions to see glaring problems that may not be visible to existing employees. So, ask new hires to identify a problem that they can fix in a relatively short space of time, and then have them fix it.

I’d love to hear about any effective onboarding missions that you have given to new hires!